Pages

Monday, October 10, 2016

New Release: Mistletoe Between Friends/ The Snowflake Inn

I know I'm not the only one who loves a good holiday romance, but I wonder if I'm the only romance author who would write them year-round if she could!

That is my dream.

I am VERY excited about the release of this duo. Both of these titles were originally released back in 2013 and were ebook only, so this makes me so happy to see them together for the first time in paperback.

So basically, I LOVE Christmas romances. Love them. Adore them. I think they are the most fun to write and really, if nothing else, you can count on me putting out a Christmas romance every year - Five years of it so far!

This is my current collection:

But back to the duo!

Mistletoe Between Friends is a cute friends-to-lovers story. Cam and Lily have been friends forever (their families are best friends too!) and they are the last single members of their families. Their parents keep setting them up on these awful blind dates so Cam comes up with this idea that if he and Lily pretend to be dating, they will at least be able to relax over the holidays without any awkward setups. The only problem? Cam has been in love with Lily for years. But he's kind of this geeky, awkward science guy and Lily is...well...Lily is a bit of a free-spirit. They are total opposites and he doesn't think someone like her could ever be interested in someone as conventional as him.

Boy is he surprised!!

Here's a little excerpt:

“Good,” he said as he tucked the pocket square in place.
“That’s what I was going for—adorable.” Lily walked up to him, and before he
knew what she was doing, she had his tie undone and was pulling it from around
his neck and wrapping it around her wrist. He arched his brows in surprise.
“Nice trick.”

She smiled a saucy smile. “There was this belly-dancing
class. You’d be amazed at what I can do with a silk scarf.” Before Cam could
respond, she had the new red tie in place and was tying it in a perfect Windsor
knot. Standing back, she admired her handiwork. “There. Now we’re perfect.”
Turning them both toward the mirror, she smiled brightly at their reflection.
“Right?”

Cam had no words. Lily stared at him for a moment before he
nodded and stepped away, clearing his throat. “Ready to go?”

Lily trailed after him and grabbed her purse. Cam was
waiting by the door and held it open as she walked through. She murmured her
thanks and waited for him to close the door. Silently they walked toward the
elevator, and once they were inside, she forced him to face her. “Okay, what’s
the matter?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You got all quiet and sullen back there. Is this because of
the tie? I mean, if it’s going to make you so uncomfortable that you won’t even
talk to me, you can change it back. It’s not worth all of this.” She stood and
crossed her arms defiantly and waited for his response.

“I’m fine, Lily. It’s just that you… Well, you took me a
little by surprise back there,” he said, his voice croaking slightly.

“Me? What did I do?”

“Wanting to put red panties in my pocket, whipping my tie
off and wrapping it around your wrist while telling me you do stuff with silk
scarves… That’s just a…whole other side of you that I…we… Well, we never
discuss. It’s just taking me a little longer than you to wrap my brain around
this whole new phase of our friendship.”

Lily had really wanted to stay mad at him, but his honest
admission and the embarrassment on his face were more than she could bear. With
a laugh, she stepped in, wrapped her arms around him, and gave him a hug. When
she felt him stiffen, she immediately stepped back and smacked his arm. “Stop
doing that!” she said loudly.

“Now what did I do?” Seriously, the woman needed to come
with a manual because he couldn’t keep up with her. If this was what most women
were like in a relationship, then moving overseas was definitely the better
option because the up-and-down mood swings were beginning to make him dizzy.

“You are going to have to get used to me touching you and
hugging you and acting flirty with you, or nobody—not our friends or our
family—is going to believe this nonsense that we’re trying to feed them, and
this will end up being yet another exhausting holiday season! Now unclench a
bit,” she demanded as the elevator indicated that they had arrived on the floor
of the banquet hall, “and take my hand and let’s go mingle.”

Cam did just as she instructed, but he had a sense that he
was in over his head. Even though the room was full of his peers, he was most
definitely out of his element.

Then there's the Snowflake Inn. This is one of my favorites. In this story, our hero - Riley - is a Marine who has been discharged and he's coming home. Unfortunately, home is the family B&B and it's called The Snowflake Inn. He's worked his whole life to escape it but his mom's been pressuring him to eventually take it over and keep it in the family. He's pretty confident that he can convince her to sell it so he can move on to something else, but he gets the surprise of his life when he shows up and finds the lovely Grace working at the inn and encouraging his mother to grow the business! Needless to say, sparks FLY!

Here's a little excerpt for you too!

“You are unbelievable,” Grace said with disgust as she rose
to her feet. Water streamed off of her body, but she paid no attention to it in
her indignation. “She has a life; there’s nothing wrong with her life. She
didn’t agree with your career choice, but she didn’t demand that you leave it.
Don’t get me wrong, I think that she and Ben would be wonderful together, and I
am hopeful that they’ll figure it out. But if they do, it will be to build the
life that they want together, not the one that you expect them to build.”

Riley knew she was speaking, he could hear her voice, but
all he could do was focus on the body before him, glistening in the moonlight.
How could he have thought for one minute that this was a good idea? It was one
thing to imagine what Grace would look like in a bathing suit – or naked – it was
another thing entirely to have that body within arm’s reach.

He noticed the silence first. His eyes hungrily drank in the
sight of her as his gaze slowly rose to her face.

That was one ticked off red head standing in front of him.
Without conscious thought, Riley reached out and banded one arm around her
waist and pulled Grace down onto his lap. She gasped in surprise but didn’t
pull away.

“You didn’t hear one word that I said, did you?” she asked,
unable to hide her outrage.

Riley was not in the habit of lying, and he wasn’t about to
start now. “No. Once you stood up in the water, my mind went blank and all of
my blood traveled south.” To prove his point, he held her more securely against
him and rocked his hips upward.

“Oh,” she whimpered and hated herself for being so easily
distracted by him. Her whole body seemed to willingly wrap itself around him,
and Grace didn’t have even the slightest inclination to do anything about it.

“I didn’t come down here for this,” he said gruffly as he
continued to gently rock his hips against her. “I really did want to talk to
you.”

Her head fell back and a small moan escaped her lips.
“So…talk to me,” she said huskily.

It was Riley’s turn to groan. Right now the only talking he
wanted to do was dirty talk, and then he didn’t want to talk at all. “Grace,”
he said slowly as if it was torture.

She raised her head and met his gaze dead on. Moaning his
name, she took her turn at rocking against him and smiled at the hiss that
escaped his lips. “Was there something specific that you wanted to talk about?”

Reaching up, Riley fisted a handful of Grace’s hair in his
hand and tugged slightly. “It’s not nice to tease, Grace,” he said right before
his mouth crashed down over hers.

It was exactly as Riley had remembered and spent the week
fantasizing about. She felt incredible in his arms, and if he had his way,
she’d never leave them. He took his turn at nipping at her lip, but she didn’t
need the prompt; her tongue was more than ready to meet his. “God, Grace, you
feel so good,” he growled as his mouth worked its way down her throat and then
to the swell of her breasts. The bikini top did little to hide her from him,
and without asking for permission, Riley reached behind her and undid the ties
and threw the top aside. Grace gasped as the fabric was pulled away, but it
turned to one of pleasure when his mouth replaced it.